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Date: 4/13/2022
SOUTHWICK – Providing a “continuous bee buffet from April to November” is how Peggy MacLeod described her efforts to help pollinators in a talk on March 29 at the Southwick Public Library titled “Creating Pollinator Corridors: Yard by Yard and Town by Town.”
MacLeod got into pollinator gardening after a visit to North Carolina in 2016 where she saw a “We Garden for Pollinators” sign at a tourist bureau.
“I thought, ‘I’m going to do this when I get home.’”
“Let’s plant a garden” led to other gardens with friends, and eventually to whole connecting pollinator corridors in MacLeod’s hometown of Northampton. Last year she helped start the Massachusetts Pollinator Network, at masspollinatornetwork.org.
Many people are familiar with a common pollinator, the honeybee, and its recent challenges. But honeybees are not native to Massachusetts. There are more than 350 different native bee species in Massachusetts. They, along with other pollinators – butterflies, moths, flies, ants, beetles, bats and hummingbirds – provide many services to the environment, and are at risk.
A study in 2019 identified a 40 percent decline in insect species. Insects are a key link to everything in the ecosystem, especially populations of birds, who need many bugs and caterpillars to feed their babies. A Cornell Lab of Ornithology recent study showed a loss of 3 billion birds, or nearly 30 percent, since 1970.
“Don’t get overwhelmed with that information,” MacLeod advised. “Put that energy into working in a garden. It takes away despair.”
For pollinators, native plants work best, and generally are best adapted to survive under varying rainfall and temperatures. She advised gardeners to start with diversity, using a variety of flower colors, shapes, sizes and heights; plant in clumps of one species; have at least three different pollinator plants in bloom each season; and provide host plants for butterfly and moth life cycles.
Be a little messy, she added. Pollinators use leaves, rotten logs, and dirt itself to make homes for themselves. Most pollinators like the sun and will appreciate a shallow bowl of water with rocks to land on. Lawns are often pollinator deserts. Mowing higher and less often can benefit pollinators.
Most importantly, MacLeod said, do not use pesticides in a pollinator yard or garden. They are highly toxic to bees. Neocortical pesticides are 6,000 times more toxic than DDT, she said.
She said entomologist Doug Tallamy estimates that if everyone planted 70 percent of their properties with native plants, and foreswore the use of pesticides, it would be like adding 20 National Parks. Home Grown National Park is his latest effort to “support life, sequester carbon, feed pollinators, and manage water.”
Isolated garden areas aren’t as useful to pollinators, said MacLeod. Habitat connectivity increases diversity. She gave some practical advice on how to make that happen locally.
“Look for municipal anchor plantings: schools, parks, sidewalks, libraries, senior centers. Then find 100 people to plant in their yards near these. You will create a pollinator pathway,” MacLeod said.
She said a local effort starts with forming a team to identify possible green spaces. She advised organizers to think broadly when recruiting volunteers, posting signs to increase public awareness and acceptance. To plant pollinator-friendly gardens in new municipal buildings, advocates should get involved in the project early.
“Getting to ‘yes’ might take time,” she said.
Several towns in Massachusetts have started to promote native plants, and pollinator-friendly yards. Some have stopped using pesticides on municipal property. Over 100 towns in New York and Connecticut have mapped pollinator corridors in the region at pollinator-pathway.org.
“After the months of disconnection, people love community work. Getting down in the dirt can be exciting,” said MacLeod.